adding lifting strakes to my pontoon boat

[reeltime123]

Hi, I am new to here but not the boating community, I have a 25' Baja and a 18' bay boat too. I purchased my Pontoon boat from my friend a few years back it is a StarCraft 223 limited. It had 2 toons on it and after taking a few waves over the bow and almost flipping it in the lake when rough weather popped up. " see pictures lol... I wanted to upgrade, So I added a 3rd pontoon and pulled that 115 optimax off of it and picked up a Mercury 225. I am still dialing it in but I am running 45 on a gps so far but the motor height needs to be adjust on the jack plate, the prop needs to be changed and I need to see about adding lifting strakes. Does anyone here know where I can buy them online and order them? or all of them custom made? anyway Just thought I would let everyone see my build and my project in the the works and get a few opinions, it's a little dirty as we were in it all Thanksgiving weekend... Living down in South La. sucks in the summer but it sure is nice the rest of the year. We can boat all year and there is only a month or two that it's too cold!!!

[reeltime123]

[RcgTexas]

Getting a little deep !

Oh I forgot Welcome!

[pond tuuunes]

Wow! Hope nobody got hurt in that deal.

[cleatus]

Welcome and....DAMN! THAT'S A LOT OF WATER coming in!, bow heavy, move your passengers to the mid or rear in rough water, if you had any kids or pets they would be swept out. I like the guy who didn't get his beer wet.

[PlaynDoc]

Welcome and....DAMN! THAT'S A LOT OF WATER..... I like the guy who didn't get his beer wet.

yeah, that would be some massive alcohol abuse.

[teecro]

And yet someone had time to shoot pictures?

[reeltime123]

Yea That's my friend Mike he was saving that beer.And was damn proud of it after...My brother just had open heart surgery 3 weeks earlier, and we were just going to take a casual cruise across the lake to a bar on the river, but being from South Louisiana the summertime afternoon monsoons had other plans...My brother had his phone in his hand ready to take pictures because the water went from flat glass to 4 foot seas in a matter of min. The wind was blowing over 40mph and that was enough to make the like like a washtub. The lake is 10 miles wide and never gets deeper than 12 feet

[RcgTexas]

I have been thinking about the water coming over the bow. Do you or did you try to trim up to raise the bow, then of course there is the weight in the bow.

[reeltime123]

With 2 pontoons i could never ger the front end up even trimmed up and everybody in the back. The solution was to add the 3rd pontoon.. What a difference that made.. Its like night and day. Just putting the 3rd toon on it I picked up 8 mph and the front end rides high. It handles like a boat now instead of a barge

[RcgTexas]

Good luck with the strakes! I hear its difficult to add them on existing logs.

[Bamaman]

Bennington's using strakes on their Express center tube--like you've got. And they run just as fast as their full third center tube--but may give a little up in handling.

I would tell you to drop the center toon and have a high quality certified welder add strakes to just it. And I would suggest you find a Bennington and copy their strake design--angles, width, gauge, length.

[TDJ2591]

Yea That's my friend Mike he was saving that beer.And was damn proud of it after...My brother just had open heart surgery 3 weeks earlier, and we were just going to take a casual cruise across the lake to a bar on the river, but being from South Louisiana the summertime afternoon monsoons had other plans...My brother had his phone in his hand ready to take pictures because the water went from flat glass to 4 foot seas in a matter of min. The wind was blowing over 40mph and that was enough to make the like like a washtub. The lake is 10 miles wide and never gets deeper than 12 feet

Curious. What lake?

[TDJ2591]

Yea That's my friend Mike he was saving that beer.And was damn proud of it after...My brother just had open heart surgery 3 weeks earlier, and we were just going to take a casual cruise across the lake to a bar on the river, but being from South Louisiana the summertime afternoon monsoons had other plans...My brother had his phone in his hand ready to take pictures because the water went from flat glass to 4 foot seas in a matter of min. The wind was blowing over 40mph and that was enough to make the like like a washtub. The lake is 10 miles wide and never gets deeper than 12 feet

Curious. What lake?

[reeltime123]

Lake Maurepas "see attached picture" in between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. All of the Lake systems connect and you can go all the way to the Gulf in no time... Every year this Lake takes at least 2 people... They try to cross it in bad weather and by the time you get to the middle, it is a washing machine... not a place for a Small boat "or a 2 pontoon boat" if you are not experienced...